At the end of my last blog, I said that the forecast was looking decidedly autumnal which should have allowed me to make a start with the framing and plaster boarding of the pool house.
However, it also said that we had a family arrive in Priory for the school half term and I didn’t want to make too much noise and dust if they were going to use the pool.
As things turned out, the autumnal weather arrived with my namesake storm, Tempête Benjamin, making rather more of an impact and change on the planet than I managed here! Thankfully we were spared the worst of it and it impacted other areas of France more than it did here.
We were delighted to see the pool get used a lot when the weather prevented more outdoor activities but it also meant I didn’t make the progress with the plasterboard that I would have wanted during the week.
We finished the week sociably when some friends invited us to their village’s refurbished bar. The village is Lopérec which is 20 minutes from us over the Monts D’Arrée which used to have a small bar / restaurant in the centre which, despite having driven past often, we had never visited.
The restaurant closed over a year or so ago and was taken over by new owners who evidently enjoy live music. They have invested a lot of money to create a stage / music space and reopened earlier in the year with the intention of holding frequent concerts including last Friday.
It was a fun night and we have definitely added the venue, La Croisée, to our growing list of fun bars to visit.
Despite the poor weather during the week, we managed one of our Sunday strolls and headed to the coast on the opposite bank of the Rade de Brest from the city itself. The route was the second half of a walk we did earlier in the year starting from hamlet of Sainte Christine.
It was a pleasant walk if not the most interesting we have done, the thing of greatest interest on the walk, the Fort du Corbeau, we stumbled across when we lost the path we were supposed to be following!
The fort has 17th century origins but had evidently been heavily changed and reinforced in WW2 as the ideal spot to defend the military port of Brest, it was intriguing to look around and explore – although we didn’t take many photos.
Thankfully, while we had a second family with us in Priory for the second week of school half-term, I was able to make much better progress on the framework for the plasterboard in the pool house.
It has taken longer than I’d anticipated because I have decided to attach the uprights to the breeze block wall to ensure it is totally solid. We know, and have already bought, some items of decoration that we will use when complete which are relatively heavy. As they couldn’t be supported by the plasterboard alone, I have pre-positioned some pads that will be able to take the weight of these things.
I haven’t finished the entire frame, and actually need to buy a few more uprights to do so, but it will be solid and make a huge difference to the interior space when complete – which may not be for a few more weeks yet!
The weather turned wet and windy again for Halloween, although it didn’t deter the village children doing their Trick or Treating, and looks to remain so for the next week or more. All our guests have now left, school holidays end tomorrow, and we are on our own for the first time, with the exception of a few single nights here and there, since early April – but no time to relax!
Kenavo.